Drag racers ‘invade’ Muntinlupa; police on alert

Is the National Road in Putatan, Muntinlupa City, becoming the next hot “racetrack” for drag racers?

The Muntinlupa police certainly hopes not, although they found a group of drag racers on the thoroughfare pushing their motorcycles to the limit in the wee hours of Friday morning.

Superintendent Porfirio Calagan, city police officer-in-charge, said in a phone interview that members of the Police Community Precinct (PCP) 4 in Putatan had told the six racers, who were from Muntinlupa and other neighboring cities, to disperse.

“However, after the police left, the race went on,” he added.

“The racers, aged between 18 and 25 years, did not wear any form of crash protection, not even helmets. And the motorcycles they used were ordinary ones not fit for racing,” Calagan said.

According to him, it was the first time policemen on Muntinlupa’s streets spotted people involved in drag racing, a dangerous sport that should not be tolerated as it goes against national laws and local ordinances.

“Just their failure to wear helmets is punishable under Muntinlupa ordinances. And more importantly, by drag racing, they put their and the public’s safety at grave risk,” he said.

Calagan added that he had ordered policemen in the area to continue to monitor the National Road in case the drag racers come back.

“Police officers from the community precinct will set up a post on the road at night until the morning to make sure the drag racers will not come back and race again,” he said. “We will try to stop them but if they don’t, we will be forced to arrest them.”

Calagan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he had ordered the conduct of a deeper investigation to find out whether the group was part of a bigger organization of drag racers.

“The problem is they might be really just ‘visiting’ Muntinlupa, maybe they just chose areas where they think they can get away with racing,” he said.

Caalagan said he would also seek the help of the city government, specifically the Public Order and Safety Office, to monitor the area just in case the racers come back.